Title

Author

Date of Award

Degree

Advisor

Professor Gautam Sethi

Second Reader

Professor Robyn Smyth

External Reader

Kedin Kilgore,
Founder,
Gowanus Grid & Electric

External Reader

Meaghan Colligan,
Attorney at Law
Knauf Shaw, LLP

Abstract

The focus of this report is to assist in the deployment of renewable energy in New York City by creating a framework that affordable housing organizations can use to navigate evolving New York regulations to deploy solar PV to their tenants and reduce their tenants’ utility bills. New York’s regulatory environment is trying to make it easier to deploy solar PV through programs such as Shared Solar Program and Remote Net Metering that provide guidance to those who are currently unable to access solar PV. However, incentivizing Solar PV and distributed generation have disproportionately increased costs for utilities, which has led to a less favorable pricing regime. To understand the evolving regulatory landscape and how it will impact the ability to install solar PV at affordable housing organizations, this report provides an analysis of current regulations to understand their limitations and offer potential solutions. I find potential rule changes that can incentivize the installation of solar PV at affordable housing organizations.